


The Art of Love

by bjfic_archivist



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-06-08
Updated: 2004-06-10
Packaged: 2018-12-27 12:08:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12080763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjfic_archivist/pseuds/bjfic_archivist
Summary: Brian and Justin meet again.....under different circumstances. Please give me feedback, I'm not totally sure I'm going to finish it yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

Brian frowned as he settled back in his seat, upset. He was happy with his job as an ad exec. at his own firm, but if there was one thing he hated, it was the art department’s incapability to truly understand what he was looking for in his designs. So now, instead of trusting the ‘professionals’, he went and approved the models and shoots himself.  
Mercifully, this one was actually in Pennsylvania, in front of the Art Museum in Philadelphia; a mere 3-hour drive from the Pitts. He brought Mel and Lindsay - and Gus, of course - along for the ride; Lindsay so she could see the Van Gogh exhibit in the museum, Gus because all Gus had to do was look at his father and Brian knew he couldn’t say no, and Mel because, well, she insisted on coming.  
Gus, Lindsay & Brian’s beautiful boy, now four years old, insisted on being in the front of the Jeep next to ‘Dada’. They weren’t a half hour out of Pittsburgh and already he was crying about something trivial. Mel and Lindsay were talking in the back. Brian sighed and turned up the stereo.  
‘It’s gonna be a long trip.’  
 _I said ‘Hey, listen to me_  
Stay sane inside insanity’  
But he locked the door and   
threw away the key


	2. The Art of Love

‘Ingrateful twats? We’re here, so you can proceed to get your asses out of my Jeep and help. Pronto.’ Brian slammed his door and opened the trunk.  
‘We’re not ingrateful, Brian, we as lesbians merely have trouble expressing appreciation. And watch your language around Gus!’ Lindsay laughed at her wife’s retorts and went back with Brian to help.  
‘Ooh, I’m so excited! Thanks for having us along, Bri. We’ll find some way to make it up to you.’  
‘Dada? Daddy? Wheh ah you?’ Gus sounded worried, afraid he’s lost his father.  
‘I’m right here, Sonny Boy. C’mon, let’s go to the pretty museum and see all the pretty boy models. I’ll race you up the steps, how ‘bout that?’ He remembered a time a long while ago, when his mom took his sister and him to the Philly Art Museum for the first time. He and Claire had run up and down the steps ten times, with Brian singing the Rocky theme the whole way. ‘Look, Claire, I’m Sylvester Stallone training. Dah-dah dum, dah-dah dum - gonna fly now!’ That was before his family went wrong. There were only a few memories he had of then.  
‘Dada? Race?’ Gus’ question cut into his thoughts. He turned around, and saw Gus...and _him. Who is he? He looks familiar, almost like an old trick or something. But he can’t be. Gd, he’s too hot to be alone right now._  
‘Gus? Go over to Mom, okay? I have some work to do. When I’m done, we’ll race, ok Sonny Boy?’  
‘Ok, Dada.’ With Gus gone, Brian’s thoughts returned to the man he had just seen, who was now standing on a top step, looking around him in awe. Brian looked at him in awe. He was blond, tall (though not as tall as Brian), thin - not skinny, but well-proportioned, and had, under his cargos, what Brian suspected to be a very nice ass.  
Brian caught Mel and Lndasay’s eye and pointed to his watch and the Jeep. He then held up 3 fingers and his cell and made his way up the museum steps to the blonde, now gazing at a strange (and, to Brian, pointless) wire sculpture. He seemed almost transfixed by it, so Brian broke his dream-state silence. ‘Amazing, isn’t it?’  
Startled, the man turned around. He had blue eyes. Beautiful blue eyes. Like the water near Ibeeza, except bluer.  
‘Actually, I’m trying to figure it out - and, even with a bachelor’s in art and desgin from PIFA I’m failing miserably. You?’ Brian couldn’t tear his gaze away from those intense blue eyes.  
‘No idea. I gave up a while ago - I was actually hoping you could tell me.’ He paused, watching the young man’s face. ‘Brian Kinney.’  
‘Justin. Taylor. Wait, you’re the Brian Kinney?’   
Brian couldn’t help but laugh at Justin’s amazement. ‘Depends. Why? Am I famous in some land I’ve never heard of? Or was someone from Funniest Home Videos filming me while I was drunk last night?’  
‘Funny. You - you took on Jim Stockwell. And won. For that, I, well, thanks. A lot. That night, the night he lost, my friend Todd and I broke the chains off the backroom. In Babylon, that is. I wouldn’t have ever had the guts the run those commercials, dig up those skeletons. Jason Kemp, the kid he helped cover up the murder of, he was a friend of mine from a million years ago. Thank you. So much. You have no idea how -’. Once again, Brian couldn’t help but laugh at Justin’s rambling.  
‘Stockwell closed down the backrooms and forced us to fuck like boring breeders. I considered it my fag duty to get the backrooms back. I take it you’re from Liberty?’  
‘Yea. I’ve lived in the Pitts forever, and on Liberty Ave. since the end of high school. See, I brought my boyfriend at the time to my prom, and this kid Chris Hobbs - some jock I jerked off in the locker room a few times - decided he didn’t like it and took a baseball bat to my head because of it.’ Brian nodded, trying his best to look sympathetic. He’d read about that in the paper a few years ago, Deb had a fit about it and started a thousand rallies and protests and forced him into every last one of them. ‘So, obviously, when I came to in the hospital, my family wanted to know if I had any idea why Hobbs came after me - I had to come out to them. Let’s just say my dad wasn’t too thrilled - well, neither was my mom, but she got over it eventually, and my sister was actually somewhat thrilled that we could go look at guys together, she was really strange - but I moved out as soon as I was healthy enough to support myself. I worked at the diner that summer, with Deb. You know Deb - wild red hair, loud, always pissed about something but rarely says what, she tries to be everyone’s mother? She’s the one in the diner -’  
‘With the rainbow vest and all the PFLAG buttons.’, Brian interrupted him mid-description. He knew Debbie all too well, thanks. ‘Gd, who within 10 miles of Liberty doesn’t know Deb? Or her voice, anyway.’ They shared a laugh. ‘No, actually, I’ve been friends with her son Mikey since I’m 14.’ He saw Justin think for a moment, try to process the name.  
‘Mikey at the comic store? I’ve seen him - the overly neurotic one? Em’s pointed him out to me every now and then at Babylon and on the street near the store. Em - Emmett Honeycutt. Emmett’s, well...’  
‘Flamboyant? Loud? Queeny? A bottom? Has strange fashion sense? Very, very gay? Yea. I’ve known him since - gd, college, I think. That’s funny.’  
‘Small world, isn’t it? Look, if you’re not busy in, say, an hour or two, I’d love to talk. Get to know you, instead of all your friends. But right now, I have a photo shoot for Brown Athletics. The ad designer wanted a Rocky thing or something equally odd. So, if maybe you’d like to go out later?’ Justin looked up with a hopeful smile, blue eyes shining.  
‘Sure - that’d be great. But wait, you’re doing the Brown shoot?’ Justin was surprised and happy Brian accepted, then immediately worried. he looked as if he was scared the shoot got cancelled and he didn’t know, or he had the wrong day, or maybe Brian had been hired and no one told him not to come.  
‘I’m in charge of it - I’d be the designer who came up with the ‘Rocky or something equally as odd’ idea. But let’s go - we’ll be late.’  
The men’s fingers found each other and intertwines as they walked off towards the base of the now immortalized steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  
_Good day, Sunshine_  
Good day, Sunshine  
Good day, Sunshine


End file.
